The Best Torrenting Sites on the Web

A few weeks ago, the PirateBay torrent website went down. We thought that this might signal the end for the PirateBay once and for all. They had been in and out of trouble for a long time now. Meanwhile, a ticker has appeared on the site’s home page. It’s counting down to February 1st. This prompted torrent aficionados to renew their hope for a comeback of the website. Meanwhile, these torrent users went on the hunt on the World Wide Web. They were looking for the best torrenting sites to serve as a viable alternative to the “most resilient torrent site in the galaxy.” We’ve found five options of our own that we prefer. Before we delve into them, we thought it might be useful for some of you to understand the basics of torrents.

Torrenting involves the creation of files to be shared across the net under a peer-to-peer protocol. It works like this: create a torrent, upload it to one of the many available platforms (but make sure the site you choose is safe), then leave the file up for download. At least, you should leave it until the seeding-to-downloading ratio is healthy enough to stand on its own. This means you’ll have to make sure enough of your ‘peers’ have downloaded the file before you surreptitiously slink away. Torrenting is usually used for large files. This is where the problems begin. While some files may be perfectly safe and legal to transfer, others are obviously not and constitute illegal downloads. We won’t get bogged down in all the technical details about copyright infringement. Suffice it to say that some of the best torrenting sites listed below host illegal files on their servers and enable users to access content for free for which they would otherwise have to pay a price. That being said, it’s entirely up to you how you choose to use any of the following sites. Without further ado, here are the 5 best torrent sites for Mac, PC, and any other possible operating system.

#1 Torrentz

Do you wonder what the best torrent site for textbooks, movies, or music is? Most search engines nowadays block (or at least filter) results that have to do with torrent sites. So, your best bet is to try a search engine that is dedicated to torrents and nothing else. In comes Torrentz, a very simple engine that enables you to locate just about any file you want in any corner of the web. Who cares if the copyright police just took down your favorite torrent site? Chances are, someone else out there has got just what you’re looking for.

#2 ExtraTorrent

In 2013, ExtraTorrent came up strong, as far as competition for The PirateBay torrent and the best torrenting sites go. It has everything, the community is great, and seeding is usually well taken care of. Obviously, its rapid ascent to popularity drew the attention of the rights holders who promptly took down the initial domain. Lucky for everybody else, the website was restored. It is now available at ExtraTorrent.cc.

#3 KickassTorrents

This great website has become second only to the PirateBay torrent site, ever since its launch in 2009. There’s little you can’t find here. The Kickass Torrent music section contains tons of content. This site has all the latest Hollywood blockbusters (and indie darlings), a ton of games, books, and other types of files. That includes formats that are great for mobile devices and Apple computers. Some of the less optimistic voices on the torrent scene expect this site to be taken down soon as well. Their views are substantiated by the fact that the site is currently blocked in major western countries such as U.K. and Italy. If you live in the U.S., chances are it will load and work just fine for you.

#4 YTS.re

Never heard of this website? Don’t worry – you have now. It’s entirely safe. It hosts a huge catalog of movies, music, and ebooks. It’s an up-and-coming website, which makes its name less known to torrenting fans. Also, its founders reported that several unsafe clones of the website popped up, in the aftermath of The PirateBay shutdown. Only use yts.re and yts.wf if you plan on downloading. Make sure you steer clear of the copycats and their viruses. Have fun growing your very own library.

#5 isoHunt

As of October 2013, the original isohunt com was closed following a string of complicated lawsuits with the MPAA and other rights holders’ associations. This happened much to the chagrin of Internet users – at the time. ISOHunt was the third largest torrent site on the Internet. So, if the site has been shut down, why are we still including it on our list? Because, a short while after it closed down, two clones (isohunt.to and isohunt.ee) emerged. Although the founders of the initial site claim they have nothing to do with the clones, we listed them here. This way, you will know there may be a way to still access all that wealth of content uploaded to the original website.